Young people today often do not receive the support they need from their family. The primary place where children learn about gender roles is the family. Families tend to engage in gender stereotyping, albeit unintentionally. This conveys a dangerous message to girls that they are inherently less athletic or capable than boys or that sports are less important for them. For example, it is often emphasised by parents that girls cannot play rugby because it is too dangerous. This largely stems from historical assumptions about women not being capable of competing in arduous or risky activity. This bias can be reinforced by parents giving boys more recognition or reward after success than girls. For me, I have always received complete support …show more content…
What does it look like? Odds are, the woman looks ready to walk along the runway, or sunbathe on the beach rather than score a goal. The infuriating truth which still persists to this day is that female athletes who receive large monetary endorsements and sponsorships are customarily the ones who look a certain way, rather than simply being the better athlete. I would love to see more advertisements like the ones Serena Williams does for Nike, in which you are motivated to smash a ball over the net just like her. In today’s society, there is an increasing number of female athletes being sexualised and portrayed negatively in advertising. Every instant a female athlete is pictured in a sexualised way; it diminishes how we perceive her athletic ability. In doing so, we as a society are restricting the number of positive female role models for our female teenagers to look up to and emulate. If today’s teenagers do not have any sporting role models, then how can we expect them to want to continue with sport? Today’s girls are bombarded through various media platforms with images of external beauty, and not of confident, strong female athletic role models. Fitting in within this constructed and constraining mould is seen as more important than standing …show more content…
The media’s sexualisation of female athletes can diminish the self-esteem of female viewer’s at large, especially younger athletes. This leaves female athletes as incomparable idols of beauty and sex appeal. In fact, high school girls exhibit more self-objectification and negativity towards their own body when they view images of sexualised female athletes rather than images of their sporting abilities. Female viewers may not only succumb to low self-esteem but may also view the athletes as sell-outs, reducing the already minimal support and popularity from women’s sports. Because of the emphasis on sex appeal and objectification of women, the media’s actions tend to produce harmful alienation in female viewers, in turn reducing sports
A longitudinal study was conducted on this trend called “Changes in Sport and Physical Activity Participated for Adolescent Females” by Rochelle M Eime et., it concluded, “There was a clear trend over time of decreases in competitive sport, and more specifically club sports participation” (2). Also, that “Female adolescents are consistently reported as being less physically active than their male peers” (5). These statements prove that girls are losing interest in sports as they age, but why are they losing interest? They lose interest in competitive sports for many reasons and they vary between each girl. Hanes claims the reason is a result of sexualized sports media by explaining, “Star female athletes regularly pose naked or semi-naked for men’s magazines; girls see cheerleaders (with increasingly sexualized routines) on TV far more than female basketball players or other athletes” (511). This is why young girls struggle with enjoying sports as they age, they are continuously told their bodies aren’t good or sexy enough. Girls at this point are already struggling with their body image, so when a role model for their sport of choice is looking sexy and perfect in a magazine it makes them question whether or not they should look like that too. This is a result of young girls constantly comparing themselves to those they look up
In 1970 only 1 in 27 girls participated in high school sports, today that ratio is 1 in 3. Sports are a very important part of the American society. Within sports heroes are made, goals are set and dreams are lived. The media makes all these things possible by creating publicity for the rising stars of today. Within society today, the media has downplayed the role of the woman within sports. When the American people think of women in sports, they think of ice skating, field hockey and diving. People don’t recognize that women have the potential to play any sport that a Man can play, with equal skill, if not better.
The ideal images of female athletes presented in the films for this class have had a strong connection to the images of ideal women in society in general. Like the ideal image of women, there are many variations of the ideal image of female athletes. While Dare to Compete tracked the evolution of the role of the real female athletes, the feature films we watched presented varying views of the ideal female athlete, which has been different in different times and places.
To deepen our understanding of the cultural values embedded in sports and to explore current values and power structures regarding men and women, it is necessary to investigate the effect that the media may possibly have in influencing beliefs about gender-appropriate sport behavior. The media is a powerful factor which influences our beliefs, attitudes, and the values we have of ourselves and others, as well as the world surrounding us. It seems that the televised coverage of athletics continues to reinforce the ongoing division between males and females, and to reproduce traditional expectations regarding femininity and masculinity. One is able to witness the biased attitude directed toward the individual who attempts to participate in a sport that is non-traditional to his/her gender. Figure skating, for example, has been dominated for many years by women.
Indeed, beauty standards and Western stereotypes over women guarantee certain benefits proving that there are still gender biases in sports. Moreover, using body image to promote an athlete instead of their potential is a demonstration of how society still needs to work on recognizing women as equal athletes with the same capacities. Nevertheless it is important to acknowledge that similar issues occur among men, for instance, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham have participated in many commercials due to their physical appearance, demonstrating that beauty has become an important factor in the sports’ industry. However, the difference resides that while in men beauty is often seen as a plus, it is almost a requirement for
1. Through the readings, films, and discussions, we have looked at the image of women in sport. Discuss the images of women in sport and how they are affected by today's cultural ideal of women.
-It has been previously discovered that through a series of discriminating and normalizing “techniques,” the American media covertly disparage and subordinate sportswomen. To what extent does the media participate in the discrimination of female athletes today, moreover, how does discrimination in sports media translate into and affect the social and athletic lives of female athletes.
Over the years the perception of women in sport has changed considerably. In this course we have viewed several films all dealing with the depiction of female athletes in an attempt to gauge society's current perception of women in sport. I will briefly summarize each film and the main themes of the films before providing a description of the female athlete which I will infer from commonalities between the films.
Women have forever had this label on their back of being too small, too weak, too feminine, and too boring. The traditional gender roles of the female interfere with the extortionate nature of competing in sports. Men are usually the ones to go 100% and give whatever they got, and to show masculinity while doing it. The standard masculinity of being strong, smart, and taking charge over dues the feminine traits of being soft, gentle, and polite. That’s what society has taught us to learn and accept. But the traditional female gender role is diminished when participating in athletics and people may think it’s weird to see females compete at the same level as males do. Men have always had the upper hand in the professional, collegian, and high
Since sports and athletics have been brought into our society it has always been gender specific. For example, it is seen that males should be playing the rough and tough sports or athletics such as rugby and football, whereas the women should be participating in less competitive sports and athletics such as swimming, or running. Can you imagine that the world population of women is around forty-nine percent and they still aren’t given the same opportunities or respect as men? Being a women in the twenty-first century playing one of those “non-traditional” sports is a tough task for these women. The women who choose to do so are usually questioned about their sexuality and
Inevitably, fashion and clothing have a significant role in the construction and expressivity of one’s social identity. Fashion and clothing gives the self a sense of distinctiveness and a reflection of one’s identity, as an extension of self-expressivity and self-definition. For a female athlete, their identities are consistently being challenged by their dual disposition and situation in the larger society (cite). These female athletes battled between the thin lines of athleticism and femininity which have rendered them an ambivalent position in society. They challenged the existing gender role order while on the other hand, reinforcing the status quo by displaying traditional modes of femininity through the role of clothes as a means of expressivity and conformity (Kolnes, 1995 ). Twigg (2012) established that identity and clothing are “intimately linked” (p.1). This shows that the role of clothes had its influences exert onto female athletes and their ambivalent identities which in turns affects the different aspects of their social identities. Therefore, clothes help to magnify the changing ways in which identities are being constituted in this modern society (Twigg, 2012, p.1).
Female athletes, unlike males, are not always portrayed exclusively as performance athletes, instead attention is placed on sex appeal usually overshadowing their on-field accomplishments. Unfortunately female sports, like male sports, are directed primarily to a male audience, the media commonly use marketing techniques which involve sexualisation of the female bodies under a male gaze (Bremner, 2002). The idea that “sex sells” is used to generate viewers and followers of female sport.
Gender bias in media is a problem with multiple different aspects. Statistics show that 40% of all athletes are women, but they receive just 4% of media coverage (The Statistics). Secondly, a recent analysis found that of 6,503 sports photos taken by national newspapers, only 78 were of females (Media Coverage). What are the reasons toward such uneven coverage? Females participating in athletics get more attention to their physical appearance than their actual ability to perform the sport. Athletes that are not considered appealing or attractive are commonly disregarded and forgotten by the media. In addition, female athlete’s are often compared to male athletes in their same sport, and ignored for their real ability because not as impressive as their male counterparts (Low Female). For years, women have not only been fighting equal treatment and coverage, but also discrimination and sexism. Media’s coverage of female athlete’s is a problem that can be solved by closer to equal coverage in the press, and more attention on actual ability than physical appearance.
In some ways, women today face more pressure to be perfect than ever before in history. The feminine ideal of the past has been replaced by a new face — stronger and more independent, but under no less pressure to conform to society's expectations than her predecessors. Today's woman must be all that she was in the past, and more. In addition to being beautiful, feminine, and demure, she must also be physically fit and academically and socially successful. It is no longer appropriate for a woman to depend on anyone, for that would imply subordinance and inferiority. Instead, woman must fill all of these roles on her own. Although achieving independence is an important step for women, it brings added pressure. This is especially visible in films about women in sport. These women experience these pressures at an intense level. They are expected to be phenomenal athletes, and are not held to a lower standard than men. However, they must also be beautiful — if they are not, they face the possibility of discrimination. Added to this is the pressure that they are representative of the entire gender. Films about women in sports show the intense pressure on female athletes to fulfill all aspects of the ideal woman.
Whether its baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, or tennis, sports is seen all over the world as a representation of one’s pride for their city, country, and even continent. Sports is something that is valued world-wide which has the ability to bring communities together and create different meanings, beliefs and practices between individuals. Although many people may perceive sports to have a significant meaning within our lives, it can also have the ability to separate people through gender inequalities which can also be represented negatively throughout the media. This essay will attempt to prove how gender is constructed in the sports culture while focusing on female athletes and their acceptance in today’s society.